


For the Dancing and the Dreaming

by IFallLikeLeavesAndSnow



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: And good things too, Fluff, Fluff and Agnst and Smut, Fluff and Agnst and Smut and Humor and Literally Everything Else, Fluff and Angst, Hijack, I will do terrible things to your feels, Look it Up, M/M, Mudita, Schadenfreude, You know . . . probably, Your joy and despair feed me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-13 17:45:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 7,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5711347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IFallLikeLeavesAndSnow/pseuds/IFallLikeLeavesAndSnow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hijack AU based, multigenre ficlet . . . thing. Prompts accepted. </p><p>The wheel turns, the world changes, and always they revolve around each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Park Pals

There's a boy in the park. He's resting in a tree, with some odd looking stick gripped loosely in his hands. His hair is white, and though he hasn't seen them, Hiccup knows that his eyes must be the most startling blue. He's dressed in a hoodie that is only just going out of style, and the oddest thing about it is that it, like the stick, seems to be covered in a light coat of ice.

There's a boy covered in ice in a tree in the park, and only Hiccup can see him. Admittedly, looking at him is kind of hard. He gets fuzzy around the edges, and blends into the background impossibly if you stare too long. He's found though, that by paying attention to him from the corner of his eye, he can make him out. When he confronted another person about the boy in the tree, they just gave him an odd look. When he mentioned how the boy had flown down from the sky and settled on a branch, they slowly sidled away from him.

Today was the day he decided to finally confront him, and pray to god that he's not just a figment of his imagination, because impossible people that no one else can see are better than just being a wing nut. He contemplated just chucking a rock at the guy, but since no one else can see him, Hiccup figured a rock might just go right through. So it was with a heavy heart that he set about trying to climb the tree. He paused to offer his thousandth or so thanks to his surgeon. It would've been much much harder to do this with a prosthetic.

After a solid ten minutes, most of which was spent climbing back up after falling down, he heaved himself onto the branch. He was lucky that the impossible boy had settled on a branch a normal person could reach. He just stared for a minute or two, catching his breath, before he reached out and poked his nose.

"Hmm?" The guy asked, snapping to awareness. In an astounding display of his mastery of the English language, Hiccup responded with "Uh, hi" and a little wave.

The other teen stared for a bit before he cracked a smirk and said "Well, isn't this interesting?"


	2. Welcome Home

The banner was lovingly -if sloppily- made, proclaiming in bright green letters "Welcome Home Hiccup!!!!!" Jack felt sure that the brunette would probably snark about all the exclamation points, but he didn't really care. He actually missed the almost lethal levels of sarcasm. After two months of recovery and physical therapy following the surgery for his new leg, Hiccup was finally coming back home.

The cake was ready, an orange and black thing, cinnamon flavored: Hiccups favorite. A very poorly drawn image of a dragon in icing covered most of it, with another "Welcome Home Hiccup" under it. There wasn't, unfortunately, room for more exclamation points. The streamers might admittedly have been a bit much, but he resolved not to care. A carefully wrapped box containing a surprise was in his hands, which he had to continually adjust.

Waiting in the foyer probably should have gotten old after three hours, but he was too excited to care. Everything was perfect. Which was of course the moment that everything seemed to go wrong. His bright blue slip resistant socks slipped, which sent him flying. Unfortunately, the only thing in range were the streamers, which when tugged on brought them and the banner down. The cake which he had placed on a table went flying through the air when he crashed into it, throughly wrapped up in banner and streamers, before it landed on his head. The present seemed to be fine at least and he was just thinking about how he could fix all of it when the door opened. A young man, standing confidently on his own two feet -even if one of them was metal- stood in the doorway.

"Uh, hi Hic" Jack said sheepishly, waving what little part of his hand he could still move. Hiccup took in the scene with a grin, walked over to his boyfriend, and planted a kiss.

"Hi Jack" he said with a smile.

  
Jacks brain puttered to a stop for a moment before he managed to get out " I missed you." Another kiss was followed by "I missed you too." The two sat like that for a moment before the present popped open and a black dog leaped out, wagging his tiny tail. Hiccup turned to look at Jack with a raised eyebrow.

"Surprise?"


	3. Coffee and Coding

It was 3:27 A.M. according to his monitor, though that might've been wrong considering that he could barely see through the haze that had descended upon his vision at the twenty seven hour mark.

There were consequences to being the best coder in a multi billion dollar corporation, as well as having the trust of the CEO. The extremely nice paycheck also came with some not-so-nice resonsibilities. As part of a prototype design for a home security system that doubled as a pet, he'd been brought in to hard code the route programs.

It was a long, exhausting endeavor, but in the end it would be his crowning achievement. With a sigh, he stood from his chair in the darkened room, and made his way to the coffee room. To his surprise and not at all displeasure, someone else had already made a pot and was nursing their own cup.

When he walked in, the other man almost spilt coffee on himself. "Shit you scared me, I thought I was the only one left."

He chuckled "Sorry to surprise you." Taking his not-at-all-childish snowman mug, he filled it up. After debating momentarily on whether he should add real sugar, he decided against it. His dentist would kill him. Black it was. The two men stood in silence for a few minutes, drinking their coffee in companionable silence.

As he made for idle conversation, the man realized that he didn't know the others name.

"Hey uh, sorry I didn't ask before but what's your name?"

The man gave him a wry grin. "It's fine, the names Henry, Henry Hadock."

"Like the fish?" He snorted.

Rolling his eyes in a practiced motion, he nodded "Yeah, but my friends call me Hiccup. Don't ask" he said seeing the others mouth open in question.

"Ah, well, I'm Jack, Jack Frost."

Hiccups laugh sent coffee snorting out of his nose in a totally undignified manner that Jack didn't find adorable at all. "You've got to be kidding me."


	4. BH6 AU (in need of better title)

"Computer, initiating test of FROST equipment Mark 0037, stand by and record results, prep analysis program." Jack said.

"Acknowledged" the computerized voice confirmed.

"Alright baby, let's try you out. Freeze on!" The snowflake based carapace on his back activated, spreading outward in a thin pattern and trailing down his arms. Bright blue lines of power spread along it. As the armor finished spreading, settling onto his palms, he grinned. "Alright, let's give it our best shot." He thrust his hands forward.

As it turned out, his best shot was rather a lot. His improvements to the battery hadn't been accounted for when he got into reworking his power management and the result was that his testing area had to be thawed out entirely, as it was presently a literal ice block.

Having lost the use of his practice room, he was forced to go begging off someone else to use theirs.

Nicholas, the Russian genius when it came to all things engine-and-sustainable-flighty for large vehicles, gave him a sorrowful look and then said something indecipherable, which Jack took to mean no.

Tiana, who was the next big thing in cleaning solutions for humans and houses, as well as, on the side, making incredibly efficient sorting algorithms and items with frankly _ridiculous_ data storage capacity, along with her work on reactivating neural pathways connected to memories, chittered away so quickly he had no idea what she said, but the general gist was "No".

Sanderson the resident psychology master as well as the creator of scarily effective knockout powder and dream reading technologies, along with tech to ease communication between deaf and mute people and those without any knowledge of sign language, gave his head a little shake and wagged his finger at Jack.

Aster wasn't quite the last person he wanted to ask, but he was close. The Australian botanist, whose work with enhancing plant growth and designs for renewable energy sources would admittedly probably save the world didn't always get along with Jack.

Probably because Jacks prototype liquid nitrogen gun had killed Asters experimental plant hybrid. It was supposed to attract house hold pests and devour them, but the only thing it got to attract was Asters attention as he painstakingly tried to save it. He succeeded long enough to get viable specimens for an offspring or two, but "Audrey" as he called it, didn't make it. They'd manage to get over that with months of work, and foiling the insidious machinations of Kozmotis, another student whose nightmare tech promised to revolutionize psychological warfare. He probably shouldn't have tested the effects on children. Regardless of their patched up relationship, Aster still laughed him away when he finally got it out of Jack as to WHY he couldn't use his own testing room.

That ruled out his immediate group of friends. He thought momentarily of talking to Honey Lemon, as Fred the mascot called her, but he didn't want to risk walking into the chemistry prodigies room. When she had dragged him to her lab for help designing a practical freezing formula, he had seen the state of her space and been slightly terrified. He didn't know  _why_ she needed so much tungsten carbide, or _why_ it was all various shades of pink, and he didn't really want to. That left very few people with rooms that he could actually ask. What to do? The new kid, some tech prodigy, he was friends with Honey, but he didn't want to go bumming off of a friend's friend, it'd be better to just go ask a random stranger. So that's exactly what he did.

  
The directory of students with specialized labs was a surprisingly large list, but Sanfransokyo was known for its advanced universities in general, and SFIT especially. There were quite a few students in the directory that he'd never even heard of, but who certainly seemed interesting according to their specialties.

Guy Rough, studying terraforming and artificially created self-sustaining biospheres. In space. He also had a thing about hyper efficient and multipurpose clothing. Interesting, very very cool, and someone who Jack definitely wanted to meet, but not quite right.

There was always Elsa Arendella, Jacks own "rival", with whom he had a casual acquaintance, who was working on the concept of weather manipulation (Jack would never reveal that'd he already figured out how to make it snow, it'd crush her spirit, not to mention it was far too dangerous). She had the right kind of room, but the two had agreed never to work near one another again after they almost froze the campus with a suped up snow cone machine.

Diana Corona, nicknamed Rapunzel because of her fascination with the practical application of hair, and the fact that her own was  _outrageously_ golden and yet apparently not dyed at all (Jack didn't believe her for a second.) Her labs though, weren't practical for his technology, the bleed out would simply be impossible to manage, it might shatter her hair samples, and then he'd see just how effective her designs for weaponized hair braids had come along. He still wasn't sure why exactly she got funding for hair of all things, but he figured it might have something to do with the ridiculously powerful solar cell she was co-designing with Aster.

There was the new girl, Moana Waialiki, she was working on adaptable, affordable solutions to oil spills and general pollution. Also some weird tech that was listed only as OCEAN. Her lab might do, but she was super new and he'd feel really awkward invading her space before she even had herself set up, so she was out too.

Towards the end of the list he found someone who seemed acceptable. Bioengineering, mechanical engineering, and biomechanical engineering. It was an impressive list and his lab was perfect and ripe for the picking. He just had to get the guys permission. "Alright Henry Haddock, get ready, cause I'm gonna woo the pants off of you."


	5. Bed Time

At this point they were both simply fighting the inevitable. Their yawns grew wider and more frequent, and their speech became more slurred with every passing second. "C-come on Hic, wha - what else can we do?"

"I-Iunno Jack I-I don't . . have the. . . the whatchamajigers."

"Idea?" Jack suggested.

"Yeaaaaaaaaaah, thaaaaaaat, mmm you're comfy." He said, leaning into Jack's chest.

"Come on Hic we can't go to sleep yet." 

"Shhhhhhh" Hiccup said putting a finger to his lips with a smile. "Imma comfy, is -is beddy bye time."

Jack looked at the other through sleep lided eyes with a smile. As Hiccup claimed his chest for a pillow, snuggling closer into the white haired teen, Jack planted a sleepy kiss on his forehead as he wrapped him in his arms.

"G'night Hiccy, I love you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To those of you wondering, yes I am going to add more to most of these later, in the form of new chapters. I just set the tone and groundwork with the short intros as I do them on my phone. I'll try to have a new story up every Tuesday (since I need an arbitrary day and it's in the title) with updates for old ones scattered about the week. Anyways that's it, feel free to submit me prompts for AU's in the comment section. Have a good time, bye.


	6. Personification

The first time they met, the stars were young, and the worlds glimmered in their laughter and light.

He was the Cold and the Eclipse. The Void and the Unmade. The first time they encountered one another, he got so nervous he vanished into the folds in existence that accompanied him everywhere. It was only when he was older, which wasn't the same as time having passed, when he understood that he was some personification of the distance between things and the absences that filled them. Only when he accepted this did galaxies cease to move when he twitched and existence around him found stability.

The Other though, oh he was different. He was Warmth and Creation. The Dawn and the Explosion of existence. His eyes were at once newborn and ancient, and his skin was constantly marred by wounds and scars long past or yet to come or else colored strangely as it once was or was yet to be on another world. It was only when he understood he was a representation of one moment and the next, and minute and millennia and things not yet and never named that the worlds did cease rewinding back to birth and shooting off to their deaths in the same instant.

The first time they met however, was not the first time they encountered one another. The first time they collided, it wasn't in anything so banal as a physical form. Before they could attain those, a physical plane had to exist. No, when they met, it was in the realm of concept. The place where all things are first thought, though it is unknown by whom. There they did meet and recoil. What was this strange other? They wondered. It is so different from me, and I have never met anything that wasn't me. These were not their thoughts, for then they had yet to be born, and in that state what they did was too strange and abstract to be called thoughts, but thoughts is the only word that begins to encompass what they did. In that warm womb of concept and idea, they did coil tentatively around one another. It cannot be said that they met, for meeting requires knowing that the other is their own individual, and that _you_ are your own individual. They rested gently on the strange other, and only when their time as pure thought was done were they birthed into a newly made existence. They lost one another as they emerged in that great swell of light, but for beings such as they it was impossible that they not meet again.

When their physical forms encountered one another, everything stopped, quite literally. Planets ceased moving, the universe stopped expanding, and time ceased its ceaseless flow. Nothing mattered more to them in that instant than the sight of the other, because for the first time in their already ancient lives, they had encountered one such as themselves. What were they to do at this moment? This great, unrepeatable moment? They danced. With forms that could never be described by mere words they danced. From star to star they took their dance. From system to system, galaxy to galaxy, they moved about one another in a constant swirl, pushing and pulling, and the noise that shook all heavens and earths may have been recognized by some suitably enlightened mind as laughter. Laughter that rang through time and space. They met and separated, again and again, over countless strange eons. An eternity in a second, and a moment in a million years.

Eventually their dance stopped. They pulled away, said their goodbyes, and went off on their own. They would find one another again, that they knew, it was never a possibility that they wouldn't. In the meantime, they traveled. Their forms changed as they journeyed. As they did so, their thoughts took on a more mundane aspect. They thought less as concepts and more as people. They learned much, traveling from world to world, about the things that inhabited their playground. As they did, they began to insert themselves publicly in the worlds. Taking on the forms of those who inhabited them was fun for them. Having a gender was a novel experience. It was difficult to chose one when there were so often so many on different worlds. Occasionally they encountered a binary, which was very strange. They were and weren't as they wished. They did not exist as anything else did. Their forms weren't made of atoms and molecules and countless ever smaller things, or anything at all really. They were representations of the universe, ideas made solid. They slept only if they wished, for as long as they wished. They ate only for fun ad never bothered with the less pleasant features a true biology required.

They watched mostly, as that was all they could do without totally throwing the mortal inhabitants world off. Too great was their power for anything more. One accident, the slightest bit too much power, and an entire solar system would be gone. Should the two of them ever meet in a true battle? They'd have to start the entire cosmos over from scratch. Sometimes they would step in against true injustice, once they'd developed an idea of what that was and found themselves standing against it. More often than not they'd send agents or objects to affect their change. They encountered one another, again and again, inevitably, two poles soaring through existence, drawn together as they always would. Only when something in existence as a whole went wrong did they step in and gently nudge it back into its proper place. A void grown too great, a bubble of creation expanding too quickly. They were simple jobs, but in the enormity of everything, they took a lot of time. Two inevitabilities, the Beginning and the End, swirling around one another in their grand dance across all existence. 

Eventually they began to exist in multiplicity. He of Time was here and also there and somewhere else and everywhen in-between. He of space held three hundred different conversations at once. At some point, most of existence found itself righted, and the two found themselves with little to do. They came together, but realized that should they dance now, they'd ruin all they had built. So they decided to limit themselves. One version only, and affecting only a single system. They could have simple fun, explore the worlds they watched over, and in their own small way, continue their grand dance.

They settled on a world they both favored. A small blue planet with varied life. Two biological genders, and plenty of things to do. It was called Earth, and that is where their story as a mortal mind could truly describe and comprehend it truly beings.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this ones longer though a little more high concept than I originally planned. Also it didn't really get to the fluff yet, but that will happen in the next one, and I wanted to try writing Jack and Hiccup as Big Good Eldritch Abominations. Granted I didn't really get to their personalities in this one, but that'll be up next time. Thanks for reading and I hoped you liked it.
> 
> P.S. Since I'm so iffy on this, and since I have one kind of done, update for a past chapter tomorrow.


	7. Park Pals II

The look that Hiccup was receiving was one that he was unfamiliar with. It was a smirk yes, but while he was familiar with any number of smirks, he didn't know this one. It looked . . . less mean than the ones he was used to. It didn't carry the contempt that he was used to receiving. It took him an embarrassingly long time to place it. Amusement. Amusement and curiosity.

"So, do you have a name?" The white haired boy asked.

"Hiccup." He said after a few seconds of silence.

"Hiccup?" He asked.

Hiccup bristled "Yes, Hiccup, sorry if it's too unusual for you."

"Whoa hey hey, cool it kid, I'm just asking, my names Jack, Jack Frost."

Hiccup snorted "What, like the spirit of winter?"

"Got it on that nippable nose kid."

"Wha-what?" Hiccup said, nearly falling out of the tree.

A pale hand reached forward and caught his shirt. "Sorry, my bad, I was just joking with you." He said placatingly.

"I-I'm sorry, I have a small tendency to overreact sometimes."

"It's no problem." Jack replied.

"Sooooooooo . . . "

"Sooooooooo?" Jack asked

"What exactly are you? I mean I'm just kind of curious, because you'd been sleeping here for a while, and you never seemed to leave, and your hair looks natural and I kinda saw you _fly_ down, so I'm guessing you're not exactly . . ."

"Human? Normal? Ugly? No to the last two, and admittedly the first ones kind of iffy. Like I said, I'm Jack Frost and I'm the spirit of Winter and the Guardian of Fun."

"Huh?"

Jack scratched a cheek absently "Right, sorry, this is probably pretty confusing for you, my bad again. Anyway, how to put this? Hmm. Well, I'm the spirit of Winter, which basically means that I guide the season where it's needed and help maintain a proper balance .  . . most of the time anyway. As for the Guardian thing, that's a bit more complicated, see the Boogeyman kind of tried to take over the world a few years ago and-"

"Wait wait wait, the _Boogeyman?"_ If Hiccups eyebrow had gone any higher it likely would've floated right off of his face.

"Yeah, his names Pitch, he's a major drag, anyway he tried to take over the world and-"

The afternoon passed much in that manner, as Jack revealed a whole new world to a dumbfounded Hiccup. More questions were asked, such as "Why are you telling me all this. What do you mean being human is 'iffy'? Who's the Man in the Moon?" Which were answered with responses such as "Because you're a teen and you can see me, and that's way too interesting not to look into. I was born a human, but then I died and then I came back. The total opposite of a helicopter parent."

The sun began to set, and Hiccup checked his watch. "I have to get home now, but I'll see you tomorrow?"

Jack grinned "Sure, I've got no where to be, or at least I don't think I do. I'll be here, and if I'm not then just check back regularly, I'll swing by soon enough." 

Hiccup nodded "Alright, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then, bye Jack." So saying he turned on his heel and ran off towards the park gate.

"Bye Hiccup" The Winter spirit replied, watching as the auburn haired boy made his way out of the park. He bit back a chuckle when he tripped. He was too close, but he'd laugh about it later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, my bad you guys, really I'm sorry. I promised this Wednesday and now it's Tuesday, and to make it worse I don't have a new story for you guys. I've been both busy and steadily feeling crappier and crappier, but I'll try to have a new story up soon. Thanks again for reading you guys, and if you have any story ideas or prompts let me know, later. 
> 
> P.S. I'm not super happy with this, length or content wise. The next installment in anything will be longer.


	8. Cold Hearted (Kingdom Hearts Au)

The tide of Heartless was endless. The energy Hiccup was pouring into Toothless however, was not. He felt stronger than before; he'd absorbed quite a bit of power from slaying the creatures, but it was getting a little close to his limit for his peace of mind. "One more big attack bud, and then we're out of here, alright?" The dragon nodded to his partner, and the beast master began to channel most of the rest of his magic into the black dragon. "Alright Toothless _**Plasma Burst!**_ _ **"**_ The dragon shot a purple ball of energy high into the air, where it rested for a split second before bursting apart and raining smaller orbs down in a series of explosions. The crowd around them was decimated. Hopping onto his partners back, Hiccup gave the order and Toothless took to the sky. The ground began to surge with darkness as they soared higher.

"Good thing we got out when we did bud, that could've gotten pretty bad." A sharp cawing sound interrupted anything else he was going to say and made Hiccup look over his shoulder; what he saw made him curse. "We've got Wyverns bud" Toothless snorted and began to move erratically, trying to throw off the pursuing heartless. The flock of pink and grey heartless wasn't deterred, drawing nearer every second. Hiccup reversed his position on Toothless' back and drew his bow. His shots flew into the flock, striking one or two down, who in turn took a few others with them with their flailing.

It wasn't enough. They drew closer and closer, each one screeching out, filling the sky with a din of screams.

"Alright then, try this one on for size." Hiccup knocked another arrow, called upon his magic -ignoring how little of it he could feel- and bellowed the spell as he fired the arrow _**"Chain Lightning."**_ The arrow flew into the crowd, electrocuting and destroying many near the center of the shot and slowing the rest of the crowd down as the charge arced through the group. Still they pursued. Hiccup however, had more time, and he used that to use the very last of his magic to cast one final spell, not on the wyverns, but on Toothless. After securing himself, he laid a hand upon the dragons neck and whispered _**"Haste**_ _ **"**_ Toothless sped up immensely, and soon enough the slowed heartless fell out of sight.

"That was a close one Toothless" Hiccup said, patting his dragons neck affectionately. The air was calm and still and the sky was clear. Hiccup allowed himself to relax, enjoying the peace. They'd reach the town soon enough, and after that, they'd do a little shopping before departing the world. Plan in mind, Hiccup smiled slightly. Which of course meant that that was the moment that everything had to go wrong. Out of literally no where, a gigantic pink Heartless appeared in front of the duo. Toothless dived sharply as the heartless drew closer. Faster by far than the Wyverns, it rapidly caught up with the tired team. A swipe of it's claws sent them into an uncontrolled spiral. Toothless eventually managed to regain control, but by the time he did, the ground was too close. They slammed painfully into the gray stone that was the signature feature of the world as the heartless screeched at them, hovering above the ground. Toothless was completely out of it. Besides that, heartless didn't really have much of an interest in the dragon, so Hiccup was the only target. With that in mind, he quickly got to his feet and ran away from his dragon. When the Heartless charged him he didn't want anything happening to his friend.

The Heartless didn't appear ready to attack just yet though, so Hiccup had a few seconds to analyze the creature. It didn't take long for his near encyclopedic memory to give him the name of this particular beast. "Phantomtail" he muttered "Just perfect." The Phantomtail charged him, and he narrowly avoided the attack dodging the scythe like tail that was half its namesake. As he rolled away and tried to find cover he rain through everything he knew about the creature. _Capable of homing projectiles, favors aerial combat, what else what else?_ Unslinging his bow, Hiccup loosed a shot at the creatures head. The arrow struck true, but after it did, the beast warped a ways away.

"Teleportation, right, because this fight wasn't bad enough to begin with." He muttered to himself. Quickly checking his quiver of arrows, which was filled to about half of is sizeable capacity (thanks to several enchantments) Hiccup began to formulate a plan. On the one hand, he should be able to whittle it down over time with just his arrows. On the other, Toothless was injured and unlikely to recover on his own. Even if he defeated the beast, he'd probably be too tired to much of anything else, and unless Toothless recovered quickly, they'd be stuck there for however long it'd take to recover his energy and heal his dragon. Which meant they'd be sitting ducks for any _other_ heartless that happened to come along. His magic was already just about out, but he had just enough left for a minor spell.

 **"Cure"** He commanded, sending the soothing green energy Toothless' way. It didn't bring the dragon back up to peak efficiency, but he did look better, and he appeared to be stirring. Officially out of magic, Hiccup thought about what to do as he dodged yet another fly by swipe from the Phantomtail, loosing an arrow at it's back as he did so. The only thing left to do was to wait for Toothless to awaken. Unfortunately that wasn't much of an option, as the Phantomtail had apparently tired of the game of dodge-n-stab. Balls of blue energy flared into existence beside it before rushing towards Hiccup. Adventuring was a dangerous and exhaustive, if infinitely rewarding career to pursue. Hiccup was certainly in far greater shape than he'd been in when he'd begun two years ago with nothing but a dragon, a dream and- Never mind that.

What was important was that he was physically much stronger than he'd been when he'd begun. He was however, still a bit of a fishbone. He couldn't keep dodging forever, he simply wasn't built that way and hadn't trained for it. Blue balls of death that followed his every move just made it that bit harder. As the fire's drew closer he made his decision and palmed a bottle from one of his many pockets. As he downed the oddly delicious concoction, energy filled his body as his exhaustion faded and his magic came roaring back. Pity that he'd had to use his lone Elixir, but better to use it now than to die with the valuable potion on him simply out of cheapness. The balls of fire were dodged nimbly as he dove between them. The orbs eventually flickered out as Hiccup faced the Heartless. The Phantomtail was stationary for a moment, which really just made it a better target.

 _ **"Firaga**_ _ **"**_ He said, thrusting his hand out and sending a large globe of fire at his enemy. Before it even struck he had nocked an arrow, waiting for the inevitable teleportation. As the ball of fire struck, the Phantomtail shrieked before space folded around it. The unfolding space to his left caught his eye, and Hiccup fired into it before the beast was even done moving. Space folded again as Hiccup nocked another arrow. This time the space unfolded above him, and he countered with a quick _**"Thundara"**_ The lightning struck the increasingly enraged Heartless, sending it back into warp. The close proximity and arching nature of the walls around him helped in this case, keeping the Phantomtail restrained, since it appeared to refuse to abandon the fight. Using the extra time he gained, Hiccup charged the arrow with magic before releasing it. The wind spell around the tip exploded on contact with the Phantomtail, disrupting it's flight, even as it teleported while falling. When it landed, Hiccup struggled for a moment to retain his footing before charging forward. His bow was slung over his shoulder as he drew his twin daggers and set to work attacking the downed beast while he could.

After getting a few swipes in, the beast rose, and he was blown backwards by the gust of wind it created in rising. Blue balls of fire once more filled the sky and began to seek him out. As he dodged them again, he shot a small fireball at the beast, which just missed as it flapped away. It charged him again, catching him on his side and hurling him through the air. He righted himself in mid air thanks a trick he'd picked up along the way and fell to the ground again. Rolling to his feet, he decided that the injury didn't warrant using any magic on. Casting an aero spell on himself to reduce any further damage, Hiccup blinked slightly in the visible breeze that now encircled his body. The Phantomtail conjured more orbs, which Hiccup set about dodging once more, slowly making his way across the ground and back over to his dragon. One of his rolls was off and an orb impacted him, followed by another. While it did terrible things for him physically, it did help increase his magic a bit. Converting damage to power was probably one of the most useful abilities he'd picked up in his travels. Casting cure upon himself, he felt his wounds close and he moved further away from the Phantomtail, dodging another sweep of his tail when it charged him again before casting a _fira._

The Phantomtail warped away when it was struck by the fire, giving Hiccup enough time to reach Toothless. Sidling up to his dragon, he placed a hand on the scaly neck before bellowing _**"Curaga**_ _ **"**_

A wave of soothing green energy rippled from his hand, sinking into the dragon. Abruptly, Toothless' eyes snapped open and he rolled to his feet. Noticing the Phantomtail, he roared at it, before charging up a plasma blast. The Phantomtail looked ready to charge the black dragon, so Hiccup fired off a thunder to keep it distracted. As the lightning struck, the Phantomtail let loose another pained cry and disappeared. Hiccup looked his dragon over, trying to determine if he was good to fly yet. Unfortunately, though he was back on his feet, his wings were still recovering from the damage the fall had caused. As he watched, he could see green light beginning to coat them, wrapping them in its healing embrace. It would take time though, time that they didn't have much of. The Phantomtail reappeared at a distance, screeching before charging them. Hiccup dived out of the way as it did, watching in his tumbling vision as Toothless dashed away from it.

The Phantomtail turned and released more orbs to follow them. This time however, they converged fully on Hiccup, trapping him in a circle of death. Pulling out his bow, Hiccup loosed an arrow at the heartless before grabbing the ends of the bow and pulling them together. When they neared one another, they glowed a silvery blue and a wall of energy expanded between them, before transforming with a flash into solid metal, leaving Hiccup holding his shield. He dove through the flames, his shield actually repelling the orb he impacted and sending it back to its creator. The Phantomtail shrieked when it hit, though it did not disappear and Hiccup smiled before diving back into another orb. He got two more orbs to deflect back at the Phantomtail before they sputtered out of existence. Toothless, who had been charging up an almost exceedingly large plasma ball, let it loose when the Phantomtail reappeared. The giant orb of purple energy smacked into the Phantomtail. It warped away, but when it reappeared it was visibly sagging under its own weight, trying to keep itself aloft.

But a wounded animal is a dangerous one. The orbs of blue fire that before had come sparsely now rained down from the sky incessantly, far too many to deflect, and too many to dodge. One orb clipped Hiccup on his side, sending him stumbling, which in turn slowed him down enough for others to catch him. The rain of orbs continued, centered on Hiccup who was now being juggled by the blasts. Even as the pain bit into him, he analyzed the rate at which they struck him, and when he found the pattern, he used the same trick he'd used earlier to right himself in mid air, bringing his shield up as he did so to deflect the oncoming orbs. As the reflected orbs bit into the heartless, Hiccup touched down and sidled over to Toothless, who'd been doing his best to shoot the orbs out of the sky, with some success.

"Alright bud, we've got one shot to finish this thing off before we're torn to shreds by those balls, so we're gonna have to bust out the big guns, alright?"

Toothless shook his head, acknowledging his riders plan. Hiccup let out a series of small fireballs. They weren't very powerful, but they would last, and they would follow the Phantomtail. Hiccup slung himself into the saddle, already pouring magic from himself into his dragon. Toothless in return, began to emit the shrill wine that accompanied the build up of a precision plasma blast. The Phantomtail moved to strike at them, only to be met with the first fireball. It warped away from the impact. Hiccup slumped slightly in his seat, as the power gushed out of him and into Toothless, who began to glow slightly. The Phantomtail began to conjure more orbs, but the second fireball impacted it, causing it to warp away and the orbs to fizzle out. The last bit of energy left Hiccup as the last fireball caused to Phantomtail to warp away again. When the Phantomtail reappeared again, it immediately dashed at the duo.

And right into their attack.

"Toothless" Hiccup commanded tiredly _**"Plasma Lance!"**_

Purple energy roared forth from the dragons throat colliding with the Phantomtail for the briefest of moments before shearing right through it. The lance continued out into the distance, dissipating harmlessly. As the boy and his dragon looked at their fallen foe, they sighed in exhaustion, watching as its form faded back into darkness and a large heart rose from it, disappearing into the air.

"Please say there's nothing else" Hiccup pleaded to anyone and anything that might be listening.

Perhaps someone was listening. If so, they were cruel indeed, because immediately after saying that, the shadows on the ground grew thick and dark and began to rise. "Oh you have got to be _kidding_ me." Hiccup said, even as he began frantically looking for a way out of the disastrous scenario he found himself in. No magic left, exhausted, injured and out of potions. Toothless was looking better, but he too was tired. There was a slight chance though, that they might still make it out of this. Then the air shimmered in darkness as the sky was overtaken by Red Nocturnes, Crimson Jazzes, and Scarlet Serenades. The ground meanwhile, was taken over by no less than seven Megashadows, with Neoshadows strewn throughout.

As the Nocturnes prepared to send balls of fire at them, and the Jazzes began to set up minefields, and the Sonatas conjured the bright clouds that dropped their little meteor showers, Hiccup gulped. There was . . . no way out of this. Simply nothing that he could do. He wasn't tough enough to take it, wasn't strong enough to beat them, wasn't quick enough to get away. There was simply _nothing_ that he could do. So he transformed his shield back into a bow and shot a neoshadow right in it's bright yellow eye. The creature spasmed briefly before another arrow sank into its head and it dissipated. This seemed to be the cue for the others to attack. As one, fire began to seek them out and the shadows rushed them on the ground.

Hiccup gave his friend a sad smile, closed his eyes and waited.

And waited

And waited some more.

He opened his eyes to ice. Ice everywhere. Within the ice the heartless were beginning to dissolve back into darkness. The floating fire users had fallen to the ground and shattered into infinitesimal pieces. The rest of the ice followed suit, shattering into pieces of ice which quickly vanished into nothingness, leaving the area the same as before if significantly colder. He glanced at Toothless, who seemed just confused as him. Then he heard the familiar sound of bare feet shuffling. He turned around, already preparing himself for the inevitable disappointment because he was gone and he was never coming bac-

Everything stopped. There was no way, absolutely no way at all. He was dead.

 _He was dead_.

He was dead and never coming back never ever ever, no matter how much he _wished_ and _prayed_ and _screamed_ and _cried_. But it seemed that Hiccup was doomed to be wrong for once, because there he was, standing right in front of him.

Sure his hair was different. Instead of a familiar brown it was white, and his eyes were a deep blue, and his clothes weren't the same. No longer did he wear a brown cloak, but instead a long black one, covered in lines of ice. Yes the appearance might have changed, but nobody in all the worlds could tell Hiccup that that was anyone other than Jackson Overland, prodigy mage, expert staff user and holder of Hiccups heart. Also dead. Very very dead after saving Hiccups life and sacrificing his own to stop a horde of heartless. This wasn't possible, not in any world, not in any way, it was _simply_ _not_ _possible._ Yet here he was.

"Jack?"

The white haired boy smiled, but it seemed hollow. "Hi Hic." he said with a wave and a grin.

"Bu-but you're dead. I _**saw**_ you die."

"What can I say? I'm impossible to keep down."

"I-I don't know what to say, th-th-this is amazing, Oh my gods -you- I can't wait to show everyone you're alive. Wait, where have you been? No never mind, I don't care, well I do, but it can wait because you- you're back." Hiccup moved forward to embrace his friend but was stopped by a chilly gust.

"Jack, what are you-?"

"Hiccup, I'm sorry" Jack said, his smile gone, leaving his face blank "But I can't come with you."

"Why not?" He demanded. After so long, after wishing and hoping and praying and _demanding_ that he come back, and to be refuted like this. It wasn't fair. It just _wasn't fair_.

"I'm not who you think I am." He said "I just wanted to see you again; as if I'd get anything out of it." He said with a bitter laugh.

"What do you mean? If you're not Jack then _who are you_?"

Jack gave him a rueful smile "Nobody important."

"Jack what are you-"

"Oh, and the name's Frost now, Overland was kinda cramping my style."

"What are you talking about?" Hiccup demanded, but Jack merely shook his head.

"Sorry Hic, I gotta go, but maybe I'll see you around." And with that the wind lifted him off the ground and carried him away into the sky. A small vile fell down into Hiccups hand. As Hiccup looked at the Ether Jack had dropped to him, he felt a torrent of conflicting emotions well up inside him. Anger, happiness, sadness, confusion and more roiled inside him even as he chugged down the ether and set about healing himself and Toothless. He'd find out what was happening, and he'd fix whatever was wrong. That was a promise.

High in the sky, Jack Frost sighed, soaring over the currents without any of the joy that he used to feel. The air parted in a portal of darkness which he flew through, landing on the ground in the Realm of Darkness. As the portal closed and he made his way back to the base, he thought about Hiccup, and the strange feeling that had taken root in the place where his heart used to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this satisfied your desire for a longer chapter, because it took a while to hammer out. Sorry for the delay, I've been swamped lately, but I'll try to get back on schedule even if they're short, I promise they'll add up. I hope this didn't tug at your heartstrings. Okay yes I do.


End file.
